Title: Forever in a Moment
Author: Charlotte O’Shay
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Book Blurb:
A stormy encounter...
Samantha DeMartino's Christmas wedding is two weeks away when her fiancé calls the whole thing off. Word on the street: his cold feet are being heated by an old flame. With her well-ordered world in complete disarray, Sam's friends convince her to go on her honeymoon—alone. A week at a charming Vermont inn away from the city and her demanding corporate career could be just what she needs to figure out her next steps. Between his twenty-four-seven work schedule on his family's dairy farm and teaching tourists to ski, Jed Armstrong's too busy to think about how lonely he is...until Sam sings her way into his life during a Christmas blizzard. Now he has to figure out a way to convince her to stay. Can a vivacious city woman find forever with a reclusive farmer?
Will her secret keep her from trying?
Excerpt:
Honeymoon for One
How did I, Samantha DeMartino, end up driving a rental car in a snowstorm on my way to a tiny town in Vermont on a honeymoon for one?
I’ll tell you, but I’m warning you now, keep your comments to yourself until the end. It’s not pretty.
That Friday started out like any other day, and by any other day I mean every other day. You can set your watch by my schedule. No, actually you could run NASA by my schedule; it’s that freakin’ predictable.
Five a.m. alarm, set so I can snooze till five fifteen, workout, shower, protein shake. Select another just this side of staid outfit from a closet full of ‘yes I am a curvy woman and yes you must take me seriously’ wardrobe choices.
Since I spend the entire day stuck in my tiny office, in theory I could wear daisy dukes and a cut off tee but parental decree dictates otherwise. Ten hours a day, every day, I’m poring over the federal, state and city tax code, and rulings along with writing the occasional memorandum of law. I don’t meet with clients. I’m a junior lawyer in a tax firm even my desktop finds me so boring it yawns and shuts down on a regular basis.
I leave the charming shoebox I call my apartment to walk one and half miles to the office, Uber if it’s raining because—my hair. It’s long, thick, and wavy and no amount of clever angle cuts or fancy YouTube tutorials can prevent it from blowing up into cartoon hair at the slightest hint of precipitation.
Eight a.m. I greet Dad, sometimes Mom at the door of their adjoining lower Park Avenue offices. We’re always the first ones there. Naomi and Jeremy, who share our receptionist and assistant duties, show up closer to ten a.m.
Then I sink into regs, opinions, and precedent, like it’s my job, because it is. I don’t pick up my head till my yogurt and apple lunch at exactly twelve noon, unless it’s to answer a query one of my parents pose about a client.
My mom, Lina LoRusso DeMartino is an accountant and my dad, Sam Sr. is a lawyer. Dad and I are DeMartino, LLP. In the adjoining office space is LoRusso Accountants. The accountants are my mom and my fiancé Ben Talese.
I mean ex-fiancé. You’ll excuse me because habits are tough to break, especially, I’m realizing, for me. For almost three years, I’ve been calling Ben my fiancé. I’m such a creature of habit you can tell what day it is by the color of my shoes. Friday’s are red, which is, I hope, self-explanatory.
But back to that Friday.
It wasn’t just any Friday. Yet like every Friday since even before we got engaged, Ben and I planned to have dinner together. At six o’clock if it was a working dinner with take out in our shared conference room or six-thirty if we went out to our usual place, Park Avenue Burger, home of what I called the boring-burger, where the salads were unfashionably tiny and the desserts predictably inedible.
However, it wasn’t just any Friday for a number of reasons.
First, it was two weeks before our wedding. Second, it was two weeks before Christmas. Third, I had some news to give Ben and fourth, it turns out Ben had some news to give me.
Ben suggested, no, he insisted we go to Park Avenue Burger and in retrospect it made sense. We were such a sensible couple. If he was going to break up with me two weeks before our wedding, he was going to do it in a public place where the legendary DeMartino temper, seldom seen but feared all the more because of its elusive quality, could not be unleashed.
Or so he thought.
“Oh, Sam, you didn’t…”
There’s shock and awe in Tracey’s voice, and I don’t mind saying that if I have to tell my girlfriends the sad and sorry friends the sad and sorry tale of being dumped two weeks before my wedding, I’m glad there’re some moments I can look back on with a smile. Make that a smirk.
“I did. I guess those tone up workouts really jacked my arms because I lifted that table like it was an empty pizza box.”
“And then what happened?” That’s Beth, she’s a New York City schoolteacher, idealistic and tough as nails.
“He brushed himself off, but I’m guessing he took a hefty burger and fries scent home with him to the lovely Krystal. Along with my ring.”
“You gave the ring back?” Tracey and Beth both shriek at the same time.
Other diners in the Turtle Bay tavern we chose as our impromptu girls’ night out spot barely look in our direction but Tracey and Beth are apparently appalled.
Tracey is an event planner and always has the Emily Post etiquette angle on everything. Beth has been my righteous protector ever since our middle school’s mean girl squad made fun of the embarrassing, too early, beginnings of my centerfold figure.
“Seriously? Why would I want it?”
“Because it’s almost two carats?” They’re both flabbergasted.
“No. I spent all of last night wondering how it all went south and I decided I was as much at fault as he is. He can keep the ring, give it to Krystal, I don’t care. I don’t need the reminder of a lesson learned.”
“You’re not the one who cheated…”
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Share a holiday family tradition:
Our NYC tradition has evolved over the years. Way back when we used to go to Midnight Mass after the seven fishes (Catholic) dinner, and the darkened church was a beautiful place to pray and listen to sacred music. After Mass we’d walk home all wrapped up in big coats to open gifts and enjoy cocktails until around two am. Over the years we’ve evolved into early Mass on Christmas Eve at four pm or in place of Mass a walk, in nature or near the water, before cocktails and a filling pot-luck appetizer dinner complete with a visit from Santa who always takes pictures with the kiddos (small and tall) and gives everyone the gift of a lottery ticket. So far, no big winner but lots of laughs. We all get home by nine pm to get ready for Christmas Day dinner and guests.
Why is your featured book perfect to get readers in the holiday mood?
FOREVER IN A MOMENT begins on Christmas night and is a romance about hope, second chances and picking yourself up after life knocks you down. Samantha is fun and funny but she’s also a straight arrow and a workaholic. She always sees the positive in every situation but this time she’s caught completely off-guard when her fiancé calls off their upcoming marriage. How did she not see this coming? During a week (which should have been her honeymoon) at a country inn where she’s a complete fish out of water, she’s compelled to rethink everything she thought was true about herself, her relationships and her career. She comes out on the other side a better, truer version of herself AND she finds a new relationship. See what I mean about hope?
Giveaway –
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Runs December 1 – 31
Drawing will be held on January 3, 2022.
Author Biography:
There's only thing best-selling, award-winning author Charlotte O'Shay loves more than reading steamy, page-turning, contemporary romance where happily ever after always wins.
Writing them!
Charlotte’s inspirations include her husband, Mac, her ever-growing family and New York City.
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